MAORI CHOIR CONCERT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 161, 24 June 1935, Page 7

MAORI CHOIR CONCERT

Havelock North on Thursday

PERFECT GLEE-SINGING

Some examples of the lively and sprightly arts of the Rarotongans will be included in the programme to be given by the Waipatu Choir and Concert Party at their shillii , concert in the Havelock North Village Hall on Thursday evening. The Maoris learned a number of songs and dances from the Rarotongans who visited New Zealand for the Waitangi celebrations last year, and perform them in Rarotongan costume.

Besides giving hakas, pois, aud other examples of Maori arts, the choir will sing a number of sacred nnd secular choral items, in which will be included “Abide With Me” (sungin Maori), “Oh Hush Thee My Baby,” and the negro spiritual, “Swing Low Sweet Chariot.”

Those items were included in the programme of a concert given by the choir in the Hastings Assembly Hall in April, when a critic had the following remarks to make on the Maoris’ performance:-— The items includ’d! the spiritual “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” in which Mr Tanga Tomoana’s voice, taking the solo part, was exquisite. So was tho whole item. There was, as there should have been, a sweet spirituality in the singing of this piece especially, and as a secular item one would choose “Oh Hush Theo My Baby,” which was the absolute perfection in glee singing. Here particularly was proof of the Maoris’ talent for shaming the pakeha in the pakeha’s own tongue. Anything more enchanting than the enunciation of the words of this song it would be difficult to imagine, and the sweetness yet strength of their singing made the item a thing of extraordinary loveliness.

The proceeds will be devoted to the general purposes of fostering Maori arts in this district.